Despite their handiness in memorizing and quickly locating great statements from the Bible, the Word of God was not originally written with chapters and verses. It was centuries after the Word was completed that such formatting was added to the copies of the text.

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Nevertheless, the Bible as it is commonly arranged has some interesting coincidences as a result of the way the chapters are laid out. Throughout the Old Testament, the plan of God to save man is seen. The seedline of Christ through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the most obvious literary thread to follow as you read through the 39 books of the Old Bible. And as you read, you might notice a pattern developing that involves certain key “chapter two’s” spread across the various books.

In Isaiah 2, the prophet envisions the mountain of the Lord’s House, whereunto all nations will flow and find a proper relationship with God.

In Daniel 2, the prophet interprets the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar and describes a great statue with different elements (gold, silver, brass, iron, clay) that will be destroyed by a stone cut out of a mountain (cut without hands, in fact, which illustrates its Divine origin). Daniel goes on to say that from the ashes of that statue (which represents Babylon and various other kingdoms) would arise a new Kingdom of the Lord’s construction.

In Joel 2, the prophet sees a future occurrence when power from God’s Holy Spirit would be poured out.

Centuries later, Jesus would tell His Apostles to wait in Jerusalem to receive power from the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8)…

And in Acts 2, the Apostles in Jerusalem receive power from on high (Acts 2:1-4), and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. Peter tells the audience that what was happening on that occasion is what Joel prophesied and after 3,000 people obeyed the Gospel (Acts 2:38-41), the Bible says they were added to the church (Acts 2:47).

From there the church of Jesus Christ continued to spread across the world (all nations flowed unto it as Isaiah predicted). And that spiritual kingdom long-outlasted the Roman empire just as Daniel said it would. So the next time you’re looking through your Bible, stop on occasion to look at your Bible; you never know what you might see!

Have a great day!